Panthers will draft Luck if he comes out; won't pursue Harbaugh as coach

Luck is a redshirt sophomore. He has until Jan. 15 to declare. The Panthers have the first pick in the NFL draft.

The Panthers have no interest in hiring Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh, sources say.

The Panthers will hire an NFL assistant, most likely an offensive or defensive coordinator, to replace John Fox as head coach. This precludes Harbaugh.

The Panthers are not interested in pursuing Russ Grimm, assistant head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, who has been rumored to be a leading coaching candidate.

Regardless of whether the coordinator has an offensive or defensive background, Carolina will not try to win by running the ball incessantly and attempting to win with defense. The Panthers know the old model doesn't work.

Brian Schottenheimer has had success grooming a young QB in Sanchez. I wouldn't mind seeing him in for an interview. RR has been a top head-coaching candidate for years now, and I'd love to see him in Charlotte.

I would trade the #1 pick to Denver for their first and second round picks and Tim Tebow. Go ahead and make the deal now so Luck can come out and be a Bronco. Then I would trade down again with San Fran and pick up their first and second round picks. Let them have Cam Newton with the second overall pick. I would then draft Nick Fairley - DT from Auburn. I would attempt to trade Steve Smith for another #1 pick which I would use on the best OT available. Then I would draft another DT and OT with those two high second round picks from Denver and SF. I’d take Christian Ponder - QB from FSU - with the first pick in the third round and then draft CBs and WRs the rest of the draft unless there was a sleeper DE out there. Instead of resigning DWILL I would use that money on a veteran WR to put with LaFell and Gettis. I would go into the season with Tebow, Ponder and Clausen as my QBs. I might bring back Matt Moore if I could trade Clausen for a 2nd round pick – but Tebow and Ponder would be my main guns. If Ponder can stay healthy he is going to be a star – and Tebow is already on his way to being one…

the truth is....the "old model" does work. but you can't do it without a QB. you just can't. people underrated how good jake delhomme was. the guy was upper echelon. at one point i would have put him top 5 because of the intangibles in leadership and clutch performance that he brought to the table. through most of his run though, he was probably a 10-15th best guy at the position but when you run the ball and play defense that's all you need.

you just can't go 3 and out and turn the ball over repeatedly. we had an elite defense this year. off the top of my head i think we finished 9th in defensive yards allowed per play, might be wrong on that but its somewhere around that.

given the injuries and the amount of plays that they were on the field for (fatigue factor) and the quickness with which the offense gave the ball back all makes you think that the bones of that defense is a top 5 defense in this league AND ITS YOUNG. ron meeks should be retained but i'm sure he won't.

we couldn't run the ball as well as we should because we had no quarterack. you have to be able to complete the easy passes to move the chains and soften the defense. we don't need to go all mike martz on em because the "old model" still wins football games.

Bottom line crew is we lost most of our games because we have a weak line on both sides of the ball. We need DTs and OTs - and OGs too actually... I am not a Clausen fan but we had trouble running the ball until the end of the year and that was not on Clausen... He also rarely had ANY time to throw - Luck or Newton will get pounded too. I think we take advantage of the Luck and Newton hype and rebuild our lines. Luck won't come out if he thinks he will be in Charlotte - I know that is hard to hear but it is true - he will come out to play under Elway and with his college coach who will be at Denver. I stand by the Tebow and Ponder comments - future stars

People act as if we have several glaring holes with our starters. We had several key injuries that exposed our lack of depth, but I don't think we're more than a few picks and free agents signings to be back in the playoffs next year with Luck!

QB: We all know Clausen isn't going to be a franchise QB. He will have a decent NFL career as a back-up or service QB. Pike isn't the answer either. Draft Luck and bring in a Verteran like Hassleback and we do a 180 and improve 10-fold!

OL: We had injuries to Otah and Wharton, but if we get them back healthy, add some depth, we'll be fine there. You gotta remember that it's hard to run on 8-9 guys in the box every play.....pass protection needs to improve.

WR's: Smitty is getting old, but Gettis and LaFell both showed promise. Very rarely do rookie WR's make a huge impact. Regardless, we need to sign a major FA here to fill this void and give our young guys time to grow.

DL: Here is where we need the most help. We have a decent group of misfits, but add a few FA's and/or draft picks here and we can improve.

LB's: Get TD back and this is our most solid and deep group

DB's/CB's: Marshall is leaving, which isn't a bad thing, so fill his spot and we'll be good

We'll find out quickly where we stand as an organization overall by Luck's decision. If he decides to stay in school knowing he'd be the #1 pick, then what does that say about the Panthers and its desirability as a destination? If he leaves, then we know he wants to be here.

As much as I like Smitty, I'd like to see the Panther's trade him to a contender and maybe get back a second round draft pick. We need to get a bunch of young guys in here, let them play and compete and then keep the best ones to build our team around. If we draft Luck, we'll have two young QB's to compete and maybe one will turn out to be the guy.

I heard the JR press conference was all the buzz in Palo Alto today. They especially loved the "I'm not a high-tech guy". JR probably thinks that "Silicon Valley" is the name of a low-budget porno movie.

I think there is little chance Luck will come out if he thinks he is going to be a Panther... If I am wrong then great - I think he is going to be great like everyone else thinks but if he would rather stay in school than be a Panther then we need to try to get what we can for the #1 pick.

The 49ers would love to pick second and pick between all the other QBs considering their QB situation... Newton is #3 on most draft boards right now.

Luck stands to lose too much by not coming out this year. His stock will never be higher than it is now. By 2012, there WILL be a rookie salary slotting scale in place that will substantially reduce rookie's pay. That's one thing that all parties in the CBA negotiations agree on. Coming to Charlotte isn't the worst place to go. Do you think he'd really rather be in Buffalo, Cincinnati or Oakland? Don't think so.

The lack of interest in hiring Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh is just a smokescreen. Why would you drive up the price on someone who is already hot by publicly announcing your man-crush? They'll pitch a package deal.

I would love to see Harbaugh and Luck here - I just don't think it is going to happen. So - why not get Tebow, the #2 pick and the #34 pick in the draft from Denver? And trust me - SF would love to trade up to #2 for Newton or any other QB so we could really improve our team with a couple bold moves. Of couse this is all based on the assumption we won't go after Harbaugh.

Of course Richardson doesnt want Harbaugh. He knows that he will have to pry open that pocketbook of his to get him. Since "The Grinch that Stole the NFL" is not likely to do that, the "excitment" around the new head coach AND the "excitement" surrounding next season will be very watered down.
I know that I wont be purchasing tickets again. --and I used to attend games EVERY year.